Disclaimer: Blah blah blah Not all Atheists blah blah blah Only referring to some blah blah blah. Didn't feel like writing the whole thing because it should be obvious by now. >_>
Kind of a part 2, if you will, to a journal I wrote back in August about Bible stories:
metalshadowoverlord.deviantart… as I have realized (through recently seeing a reoccurring trend among Atheists on DA) I forgot to add something rather important.
A common claim among Atheists is that Atheism is the path of science and reason, that being godless will take you to the heavens and the shackles of the ridiculous morality you were brought up with will be broken, thus setting you free. Well, Atheists may make the best scientists, so they claim, but they seem to either selectively forget what they've learned in their literature classes or they just outright flunked it. I know this seems to be akin to a personal attack than an argument, and I'm sure many atheists will start beating me with books by Friedrich Nietzsche and Richard Dawkins (which would technically make them Bible-Beaters in their own right, but let's not get into details). Almost everyone who has ever stepped inside of a middle school literature class has heard these two words before: Metaphor & Simile. I'm sure said people have also heard of symbolism and about the concept of hiding meaning in words and such.
However, let's define at least Metaphor and Simile. The concept of Symbolism won't really take up a significant part of this article.
sim·i·le/ˈsiməlē/
Noun:
A figure of speech involving the comparison of one thing with another thing of a different kind, (e.g., as brave as a lion).
The use of such a method of comparison.
met·a·phor/ˈmetəˌfôr/
Noun:
A figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to an object or action to which it is not literally applicable.
A thing regarded as representative or symbolic of something else, esp. something abstract.
Basically, Metaphor and Simile are methods of comparing a subject to something else, be it physical or abstract, in an attempt to present symbolism or other means of description to said subject. NOW, we can get to the niddy-gritty, as my grandmother used to say, of the topic.
In any book you read, you're bound to find examples of either Simile or Metaphor, though you'll probably encounter metaphor more often than not. Either way, I'm sure one who has had experience in handling such literary devices (i.e. a middle school student) would be able to pick up on what might be literal and what might not be with a little bit of thought. Let's look at an example of a metaphor from one of my favorite writers, William Shakespeare.
"A man may break a word with you, sir, and words are but wind."
(William Shakespeare, The Comedy of Errors)
For those who cannot spot it, the metaphor is "words are but wind". Are words really wind? Of course not. To get scientific, words are sounds produced in a person's larynx which escape through the mouth. Therefore, words cannot be "wind". What he is trying to say is that words are nothing, kind of like the "Sticks and stones may break my bones" line we always heard when children.
However, it seems that many Atheists on DA, who probably haven't even picked up a Bible other than to put it in the fiction section of their local Barnes & Noble, cannot seem to grasp what is a metaphor when they read the Bible even when they have even the most basic information about Christianity. For instance, every Atheist, I'm sure, knows that Christianity teaches the ten commandments, one of which is "thou shalt not kill". This, of course, means that we cannot just go out and murder everyone we hate. If we must be faced with a life or death decision in which killing an aggressor is the only way to survive, then this is acceptable, because self-defense is always justifiable when in danger. Now, let's look at verses in the Bible involving killing and hatred, since the 5th commandment deals with both.
"If anyone, even your own family suggests worshiping another God, kill them." (Deuteronomy 13:6-10).
"If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple." (Luke 14:26).
Now, you can already guess how an Atheist may react to reading this. He'd probably immediately say that this proves Jesus wasn't loving, that God is evil and the Bible is full of contradictions without even stopping to think about it (Kudos to those who would actually stop and think about it. You have my undying respect). The first verse from Deuteronomy sounds a lot like honor killings that you hear about in the muslim world, so why aren't Christians doing it if it's written in the Bible? It's because "kill" in this sense, is actually a way of expressing rejection. It's a lot like the line parents tell kids who try to be cool by following the example of classmates and friends, "If so-and-so jumped off a bridge, would you?" The line here is more like, "If your family would reject me, would you too?"
Now for the verse from Luke. If Jesus preached that we should love those who hate us, how then can anyone justify Him telling us to hate people, let alone our own family? Well, again, things are not as they appear to be, for Christ is not calling for an actual "hatred". He's calling for us to love God above everything else, as we should. Heck, Jesus was a family-oriented guy himself, so why WOULD he call for people to hate?
You see? By looking beyond the ink and parchment it is written on, we can see what the written words keeps hidden, revealing a deeper meaning to those with the eyes to see, and the only way to fill the emptiness of the mind that hungers for knowledge and wisdom and is not only fill it with such contents, but to analyze what we see in the great laboratory, the ultimate supercomputer, of our brain. Once we have done so, the great mysteries contained within the written word, and the world itself, gush forth, bringing not only excitement and possibility, but quite possibly the most important thing which all should strive to discover...
...the Truth.
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